The present invention relates broadly to automated apparatus for folding sheet material, particularly textile sheet material, into substantially equally sized sections and, more particularly, to an apparatus for folding and stacking a multiplicity of individual sheets of material wherein the folding and stacking takes place within the perimeter defined by the frame of the apparatus.
Commercial laundries which service hotels, restaurants, hospitals and other public facilities launder a multitude of textile material sheets, typically in the form of bed sheets, both fitted and non-fitted, blankets, and tablecloths. Further, textile mills produce the aforesaid sheet items, including knitted sheets, both fitted and non-fitted, which also must be folded. Since these items are typically too large to handle unfolded, the sheets are folded into predetermined, equally sized sections for transportation and storage prior to continued use. Folding such sheets by hand would be unnecessarily labor intensive and time consuming. Accordingly, automatic devices have been developed for folding flat textile sheet material into predetermined, equally sized sections. These machines are typically large, floor standing framed devices which include a plurality of feeder elements for feeding the textile material through the machine in a predetermined path. Along the path, the sheets are manipulated in a manner so as to fold them into the aforesaid predetermined sections. Folding is typically accomplished by air blasts directing a midpoint of the sheet into a nip or by selectively movable mechanical projections which manipulate the sheets into a folded condition.
Two separate problems typically exist with current sheet folding machines. First, once each sheet is folded it must be removed from the machine by hand and stacked along with other folded sheets. This operation can be both labor intensive and time consuming. Further, it requires an alert, attentive operator to remove sheets as they are folded. As a solution, sheet stackers have come into use which are attachments to current folding machines.
The solution to the first problem gives rise to the second problem. The stackers used to receive and stack the material sheets are fitted as an addition to the folding machine somewhere along the outside of the frame which adds to the bulk of the folding machine. Heretofore, stackers could not be fitted within the frame of the machine due to the requirements imposed by the arrangement of the sheet folding elements within the folding machine itself.